Fable II
| Fable II | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
| Studio |
 Lionhead Studios
|
||
| Publisher |
 Microsoft Game Studios
|
||
| composer |
Danny Elfman Russell Shaw |
||
| Erstveröffent- lichung |
October 24, 2008 | ||
| platform | Xbox 360 | ||
| genre | Action RPG | ||
| Subject | Fantasy | ||
| Game mode | Single player and multiplayer | ||
| control | Gamepad | ||
| medium | DVD-ROM | ||
| language | German | ||
| Age rating |
|
||
| information | RPG with a good / bad system | ||
Fable II is an action role-playing game and the sequel to Fable . The game was developed by Lionhead Studios and published by Microsoft . It was released exclusively for Xbox 360 on October 24, 2008 and is for ages 16 and up.
action
Childhood of the hero
The hero and his sister, Rose, hear loud applause from an alley. Rose then decides to go there. Shortly afterwards, they find a dealer who sells items from the Old Kingdom. When the seller holds up a music box and says that it comes from a distant past and that it can fulfill wishes, Rose says that there is no such thing as magic.
Suddenly a woman stands next to them. She tells of the old days when people still believed in magic and that it is poor that the youth no longer believe in it. Rose and her brother then do small chores to get money so they can buy the music box. After you have earned 5 gold pieces, you buy the music box from the dealer. Excited, they run to a remote location in Bowerstone to examine the box more closely. When the girl opens it, music sounds from inside and the box begins to turn in the bright light. Rose wishes to live in Fairfax Castle. The light flashes and the box is gone. Rose is very disappointed as they have given out five gold coins for free.
During the night a guard appears in front of the two children’s shelter, who announces that Lord Lucien would like to see them. The two siblings leave with the escort. After a while they reach Fairfax Castle, where Lord Lucien lives. Lucien is already expecting them and is very interested in them when Rose says they used the music box. He asks her to go into a magic circle. After a moment's hesitation, Rose enters and a blue aura shines. The brother also enters the circle, whereupon it flashes. Lucien says they have hero blood. He touches the aura, which is turning red, and hurts Lucien.
He flips through a book and whispers to himself: “You are heroes, but none of the three, one of you is the fourth!” Then he shoots Rose and fires a shot at her brother, who is standing at the window. The recoil causes him to fall through the window. He is found seriously injured by Theresa, who takes him in and trains him so that he can live up to his destiny.
The birth of a new hero
Ten years have passed since Theresa took the hero with her and trained him. She sends the hero to the last remnants of the heroes' guild: the Fate Chamber. Once there, the hero learns that he is related to the hero who killed Jack with the knife. Thus he also descends from the Archon line.
He stands in the middle of the chamber, following a sign similar to that of Lucien. Shortly thereafter, his heroic blood awakens and he is now able to control his will and thus use willpower. Theresa and he meet in Bowerstone, where she tells him Lucien's whereabouts, the Zackenturm. Theresa says that the serrated tower was intended to be the head of all magic. Shortly after completion, the first request was made, whereupon the tower emitted a devastating pressure wave that destroyed all of Albion. This is exactly what Lucien intends to do, but for this he needs the three heroes: the hero of strength, the hero of will, the hero of ability. It is his fate to find these three heroes so that Lucien cannot capture them prematurely.
The search for the three heroes
After a while it is discovered that a member of the Temple of Light, more precisely Sister Hannah, is the hero of strength. After walking through the spring cave with her and finally returning, you learn that the abbot, Hannah's father, was killed. From then on she calls herself Hammer and joins the guild.
Garth used to be a friend and helper of Lucien. He thought that Lucien was only looking at the old realm out of curiosity. Together with Lucien he started to build the zigzag tower. The friendship broke up, however, when Garth realized that Lucien knew he was one of the three heroes. Since then he has been hiding in Brightwood Tower, but is kidnapped by the "commandant" and taken to the Zackenturm.
Since the hero Garth had to be saved, the hero has to go to the jagged tower. Lucien recruits winners of the cauldron as guards on the jagged tower. The hero travels to Westcliff and wins in the cauldron. Then the way to the Zackenturm, the place where Lucien is, is open to him. After a boat trip, the hero reaches the Zackenturm. After a while the hero finds Garth, but cannot free him at this time. The commander says that Lucien’s hand will transform Albion into the tower. Ten years pass after a few guard duties and visits to the commandant.
The commander sends the hero to check the lack of a guard. When he comes to the place, he finds the dead guard and next to it Garth. Garth and the hero flee. The hero kills the commander. Together, the two heroes flee from the Zackenturm, which has taken on ever larger shape over the past ten years. Garth joins the guild after speaking with Theresa. Together, the three heroes get ready to find Reaver.
Reaver is the hero of skill. He lives in a villa in Bloodstone. Together, Hammer, Garth, and the hero travel to Garth's house to open the Culli's gate to Whraithmarsh. But they are attacked by Lucien's lackeys. At the last moment the gate is activated and the hero can pass through. However, it then breaks and Garth and Hammer have to stay behind. The hero ends up in the former Oakvale. After a long journey and a fight against a Howling Spirit, he finally arrives at Bloodstone. There he meets with Reaver, who is willing to help him if he would bring a shadow seal to the shadows. After the hero has given up the shadow seal, you learn that Reaver is over 200 years old and has betrayed the hero to Lucien. However, Reaver did not expect that Lucien would betray him too, since Lucien also wants Reaver. They escape through a secret tunnel and fight their way out. Once there, they also meet Hammer and Garth.
The ritual
Theresa and the four heroes travel to Heroes Hill. There they perform a ritual that is supposed to summon the weapon that is needed to defeat Lucien. After performing the ritual, Lucien and some of his henchmen appear and kidnap Reaver, Garth, Hammer and Theresa. After a short conversation, Lucien wants to shoot the hero, but his dog jumps into the line of fire and is hit himself. Now Lucien shoots again and the hero falls into a kind of dream.
As a child, the hero is awakened by Rose on a beautiful farm. He plays with her all day until he goes to bed in the evening. During the night the hero wakes up and hears a familiar melody. He follows her and finds the music box at the end of the path. When he picks it up, his entire life passes him by again.
The showdown
The hero wakes up again in the serrated tower. He walks down the path until he finds Lucien and the other three heroes. He uses the music box to deprive Lucien of his power. When he stands there weakened and begins an angry monologue, either the hero shoots him or, if he hesitates too long, Reaver shoots him. After Lucien is dead, Theresa appears and tells the hero that he has a wish. He can choose between sacrifice (resuscitation of all Lucien's victims, good), love (resuscitation of all loved ones of the hero, the dog, possibly family, neutral) and wealth (1 million gold pieces, evil). After the decision, Garth and Reaver go to Samarkand and Hammer in the north to live among the warrior monks. The hero himself is sent to Oakfield, while Theresa stays behind on the jagged tower.
After completing the plot, the hero can continue to complete any side quests that have remained open, explore the world and take part in mini-games.
Characters
- rose
- Rose is the hero's sister and therefore also carries heroic blood. She is very brave and loves her sister / brother very much. She dreams of a life in Fairfax Castle. It is she who wishes the mystical music box to get into that castle in order to be able to live there. When Lucien finds out, however, that she or her brother is the fourth hero, she is killed by Lucien.
- If you choose the ending “love” at the end of the game, Rose will be revived and you will receive a letter from her. In this she explains that she is with a nice man who wears a blue robe.
- Lucien
- Lucien is the owner of the Fairfax Castle. Since his daughter and wife died, he has seen a flaw in the world of Albion. With the help of the jagged tower he wants to reshape and change Albion. He got a prophecy about a hero who will stop him. That's why he wants to kill the hero and his sister. Since then he has lived on the Zackenturm and hunts Hammer, Garth, Reaver and the hero. He will be killed by the hero or reaver just as prophecy foretold.
- Theresa
- Theresa has lived for over 600 years. She was the sister of the hero from Fable (: The Lost Chapters) who killed Messer-Jack. She is related to the hero from Fable II and picks him up after he falls from the high tower. After Lucien is dead, she owns the serrated tower.
- In the second add-on called "See the Future" she shows the hero his future, in which he is king and will have a child, in whose hands the future of Albion lies.
- Barnum
- Barnum is an inventor who always invents strange devices that mostly don't work. He has a very funny way of expression that he got from the "Thesaurus" book. Most of the time the hero helps him out of difficult situations, so he bought a bridge that was occupied by bandits. Thanks to the hero, all bandits were killed and the bridge was usable again. In the end, Barnum is killed by the Reaver because a picture that Barnum wanted to make for him could not be completed immediately.
Gameplay
In Fable II you have the choice whether the character being played is male or female. Compared to the parts Fable and Fable: The Lost Chapters , the game world is about ten times larger than in these predecessors. The average playing time for the central story is around 15 hours and for the entire game, including the existing side missions, around 100 hours. The game has a one-button combat system, which means that the combat essentially requires three buttons on the controller, in this case X for a sword attack , Y for a remote attack and B for a magical attack. The playing figure only ages within the context of the story and not by ascending the levels. It is also possible that the playing figure can both father children and become infected with venereal diseases. Some of the locations in the game change over the course of the story. In order to earn money in the game, it is no longer enough to complete the main tasks, as there is no longer any money for them. For this reason you have to go to work. The game contains around 100 weapons and six professions (assassin, blacksmith, lumberjack, landlord, henchman and bounty hunter). It is possible to jump over obstacles at marked points. The character can also swim, slide down hills and dive into the water from higher elevations . The clothes and the hair of the character can be designed in any color. In contrast to its predecessor, there are two further alignment options, so that you can now choose between a total of four states. These states are good, bad, pure and corrupt. The game also has a two-player cooperative multiplayer mode that can be played both offline and online.
Three different engines are used in the game: The Lionhead Engine, the Havok Engine and the Kynapse Engine. The Lionhead Engine is responsible for the implementation of the actual game world, the Havok Engine for the physical effects and the Kynapse Engine for the AI.
weapons
There are seven different types of melee weapons in Fable II , these are:
- Long swords
- Axes
- Mace
- Axes
- Hammers
- Katanas
- Cutlass
There are also so-called "EPIC weapons".
There are also four different ranged weapons, these are:
- Crossbows
- Blunderbusses
- Rifles
- Pistols
Rifles and pistols are subdivided into flintlock, cannon and clockwork weapons. Flintlock weapons do the most damage and have to be reloaded after each shot. Guns have medium damage and multiple barrels and can therefore fire multiple shots and can be reloaded after each shot, but does not have to. Clockwork weapons are the weakest ranged weapons and have a magazine that is only reloaded when it is empty.
Communities
There are different communities in Fable II . These are:
- The Heroes Guild
- The founding of the guild goes back thousands of years. Back in the days when Albion was full of chaos. This chaos started when the kingdom fell through the Jagged Tower. Albion was on the verge of doom, until suddenly a new hope came from the west: Nostro.
- Actually, Nostro was an ordinary robber and mercenary. Until then, he hadn't reached his full potential until he finally met Schnitter. Schnitter had a very high interest in Nostro and he realized that under his leadership Nostro could bring prosperity back to Albion.
- Schnitter began to train him and showed him how to take on a leadership position. At the end of his training, Nostro was ready to bring peace and prosperity back to Albion. He founded the Heroes Guild and began training young men and women. These became the first heroes of Albion.
- Albion was in full bloom again under the guidance of Reaper and Nostro. The history of the guild also produced particularly powerful heroes, these are: Thunder (in the first part still Donner), Whisper, Solcius, who created Avo's tear, and the Jackslayer, who is considered the strongest hero of all time and who killed Messer Jack.
- 600 years later, when Messer Jack was dead and there was no longer a major threat, the heroes became snooty and arrogant. A short time later, the guild was destroyed by an angry mob.
- The shadow temple
- A short time after the temple of Skorm was destroyed, the shadow temple was created which, like the temple of Skorm, sacrifices people. They do this to soothe the shadows. In the further course of the game the hero can either destroy the temple or help him destroy the temple of light.
- The temple of light
- The Temple of Light is the exact opposite of the Temple of Shadows. They do not use violence and most of the time they pray for peace and prosperity. Later, the hero can help him and overthrow the Temple of Shadows or destroy the Temple of Light.
- The Highwaymen / The Assassin Guild
- This group consists of bandits and highwaymen who also carry out assassinations. Lord Lucien puts them on the hero.
Extensions
There are two add-ons that can be purchased and downloaded from the Xbox Live online marketplace .
- Knothole Island
Starting from the Bowerstone docks, the hero in the add-on "Knothole Island" is brought from the Bowerstone Docks to the so-called Knothole Island by the submarine captain Gordon. There are new quests and creatures as well as new weapons, clothes and potions. In addition, your own game performance can be compared with other players via 50 leaderboards on the developer's website.
- See in the future
The expansion “Seeing the Future” also brings new assignments: In “The Spirits of the Snow Globe” an entire village is waiting to be rescued, which has been banned into a magic snow globe by a curse. In the second additional mission - "The Cursed Knight" - the hero has to free an enchanted fighter from his misery. In addition, the expansion offers new costumes, such as a hobb or balverine disguise, and new potions. With a special magic drink it is possible to transform your own dog companion into one of three new dog breeds (Dalmatian, bloodhound, husky). Also included is a battle arena, the Colosseum. With the expansion, the dog can now learn the backflip as a means of expression, which was previously reserved for players who had purchased the Fable II Pub Games separately .
Versions
Fable II is also available in a limited collector's edition. In addition to a making-of DVD, this includes an additional dungeon, a legendary saber and halo-like armor with a particle sword. The later DVD editions "Game of the Year Edition" (2009) and "Xbox Classics" (2010) contain the two add-ons and have already integrated them into the main game.
Although there has long been speculation in specialist circles about a port for the PC, this did not materialize. A PC version only appeared again from the successor Fable III .
Novels about the games
- Peter David : Fable: The Order of the Balverine , February 2011, Panini Verlag , ISBN 978-3-8332-2238-2
- Peter David: Fable: Blood Ties , October 2011, Ace-Verlag, ISBN 978-1-937007-40-9 (English)
- Christie Golden: Fable: Edge of the World , August 2012, Del Rey-Verlag, ISBN 978-0-345-53937-3 (English)